Gates downplays Russia's expulsion of US attaches

Thu May 8, 4:49 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday dismissed Russia's order to expel two US military attaches as "just the usual tit for tat" in response to Washington's expulsion of a Russian spy.

Gates offered no other details on the circumstances surrounding the expulsion order, but the United States expelled a Russian military attache on April 21 and kicked out another in November.

"There's a major aspect of reciprocity here," Gates told reporters.

"I think at some point recently we expelled a Russian for spying. And then these things get into a kind of a back and forth, and at some point everybody decides to stop," he said.

The State Department disclosed the expulsion orders a day after Vladimir Putin handed over the Russian presidency to his hand-picked successor, Dmitry Medvedev. Putin then assumed the position of prime minister.

"There are some intriguing developments in Moscow, but I don't read much into the attache thing other than just the usual tit for tat," said Gates.

The former CIA director and career Soviet analyst suggested that plans for a big military parade through Red Square on Friday was a throwback to the Cold War.

"I'm waiting to see if the leadership will be standing atop Lenin's tomb and see if we'll be back to Kremlinology about who's standing in what place and so on," he said.

He recalled that the CIA used to devote enormous efforts to deciphering the Soviet military parades.

"I mean, not only looking at the equipment that was going by, because they'd run some of their newer stuff out -- they don't have a lot of new stuff now -- but sure, looking at who was standing next to whom and who was more heavily bundled up than the next geriatric," he said.

A State Department spokesman, Gonzo Gallegos, earlier denied that the latest expulsions were linked to the expulsion of the two Russian military attaches.

A State Department official speaking privately said the United States did not believe the cases were linked.

"These kind of things do happen where people are asked to leave the country for various reasons," the official said. "I would not say that this is a continuum. We see that a distinct incidents and we treat them as such."

In Moscow, a Russian foreign ministry spokesman contacted by AFP declined to comment on the report of expulsions.